[chloristoflora]

The potion of melange she'd drained just before leaving the temple was the largest she'd ever attempted—a massive overdose. Even before beginning to take effect, it had terrified her.

Why did I do it? she asked herself

One made a choice between dangers. Was that it? This was the way to penetrate the fog spread over the future by that damnable Dune Tarot. A barrier existed. It must be breached. She had acted out of a necessity to see where it was her brother walked with his eyeless stride.

The familiar melange fugue state began creeping into her awareness. She took a deep breath, experienced a brittle form of calm, poised and selfless.

Possession of second sight has a tendency to make one a dangerous fatalist, she thought. Unfortunately, there existed no abstract leverage, no calculus of prescience. Visions of the future could not be manipulated as formulas. One had to enter them, risking life and sanity.

Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert

[beyondthecosmicvoid]

"The sequential nature of actual events is not illuminated with lengthy precision by the powers of prescience except under the most extraordinary circumstances. The oracle grasps incidents cut out of the historic chain. Eternity moves. It inflicts itself upon the oracle and the supplicant alike. Let Muad'dib's subjects doubt his majesty and his oracular visions. Let them deny his powers. Let them never doubt Eternity."

- DUNE GOSPELS from Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

[bestenemys]

In truth, Emperor and sister are one person back to back, one being, half male and half female.

PAUL ATREIDES and ALIA ATREIDES in DUNE 3

[saint-alia-of]

You produce a deadly paradox.

Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

[hlblng]

St Alia of the Knife

Costume design concept for one of my favourite Dune Girlies

Also print & link for this is in my description :) Unfortunately, Redbubble took the print down because apparently it intereferes with copyright for the Dune movie, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with it but whatever

[tuckoo]

“Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions, and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.”

— From Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert

[lucy-the-wyrm]

'We're here now!' she protested, fighting a dry sob. 'And . . . I feel we have so little . . . time.' 'We have eternity, beloved.' 'You may have eternity. I have only now.' 'But this is eternity.' He stroked her forehead.

Dune: Messiah - Frank Herbert

[poems-quotes-etc]

Dune Messiah Quote 38

He has gone from Alia,

The womb of heaven!

Holy, holy, holy!

Fire-sand leagues

Confront our Lord.

He can see

Without eyes!

A demon upon him!

Holy, holy, holy

Equation:

He solved for

Martyrdom!

Page 249 paperback

(Frank Herbert)

[j-august]

"I live in an apocalyptic dream. My steps fit into it so precisely that I fear most of all I will grown bored reliving the thing so exactly."

Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Dune Messiah spoilers ~~~

Ok did I misinterpret the stone burner scene entirely or does Paul...kind of kick ass in that scene?? Like, he is actively losing his eyesight (well, kind of), and his priority is to actually use his authority in a good way to be like "everybody stay calm help is coming" etc...idk I found it to be such a meaningful and human moment demonstrating what a leader should actually be, and what kind of leader Paul is actually good at being. On a small scale, in moments of immediate danger, he is genuinely helpful and competent.

Idk it was just interesting to me that Frank Herbert included that as a contrast to all the moments that show him ruling in this distant way that he's been doing so for the rest of the book, hidden away in the imperial palace sending out orders and trying not to think about all the blood on his hands; we then also get to see him on the ground in the midst of a crisis -- one he is also very much affected by -- and helping out in a way that matters. I know it's not a long scene and we don't get into it that much on an emotional level, but I found that nugget really significant.

@fuckyeahisawthat i neeeeeed to discuss this with you

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Yeah yeah yeah!! I must confess I am very excited for the whole stone burner sequence in the film. I just went back and re-read it and even though it's only a few pages long it's so vivid and horrifying, and I think Denis is gonna kill it with this sequence. (And yeah, it is definitely gonna be in there, and prominent.)

And yeah I think it demonstrates really well that Paul can be an excellent leader in a crisis situation. Yeah, in this case he already knows what's going to happen, but knowing and being able to remain calm and think of other people in a moment when something viscerally horrifying is happening to you are two different things.

For someone who lived a very privileged life before All the Shit Went Down, Paul is pretty good at keeping it together and leading others in dangerous situations. In both the book and the movie, we see how he basically takes the lead in making sure he and Jessica survive in the desert and find the Fremen after the attack on Arrakeen. It plays a little different in the book vs. the movie because of the slightly different timeline of how his prescience develops, but in both cases Jessica is pretty much following his lead until they reach Sietch Tabr.

And (we are getting more into film canon here because I don't think this is really explored in as much detail in the book) with the fedaykin we see that he quickly becomes respected enough--specifically among people who doubt the prophecy--that he starts leading informally long before he is formally in command of anyone. Because Fremen culture seems to very much value leadership that is earned through action and personal bravery, and Paul will do that. He will go to the front lines and risk his own life, whether it's riding a sandworm or fighting Harkonnens. Muad'Dib leads the way etc etc. This is part of why he knows he has to duel Feyd himself--even if Feyd and the Emperor would have accepted Gurney in Paul's place, in order to keep the respect of all the Fremen followers he's amassed he has to do it himself.

But the more power Paul accumulates, the more removed he becomes from his followers, until you get to Dune Messiah where he's basically in the palace the whole time issuing edicts. Except for this one moment where he is like, the most on the front lines it's possible to be. But of course by then it's way too late for him to go back to being the person he was before he became Emperor.

[alittlefrenchtree]

Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only difference of degree. You have done violence to him, consumed his energy. Elaborate euphemisms may conceal your intent to kill, but behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains : "I feed on your energy."

-- Addenda to Orders in Council the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib

[number63liveblogs]

Dune Messiah, part 17

“We’ve no time for your stupid riddles,” Dhuri growled.

The whole letting his mouth run could not more clearly be a survival mechanism for someone who, like he said, doesn’t have much physical strength and who was literally sold into slavery. It really sounds like someone who needs to be entertaining or else he’ll be discarded or thrown away. Cut him slack.

I’m really not sure what the danger in this was. The family doesn’t seem to know that their daughter is dead and replaced with a spy, and the warning appeared genuine. So why did he need to take Chani with him? It didn’t seem to be something genuinely requested by Otheym, as nobody commented on Chani not being there.

Is the dangerous part coming after this, is there an ambush waiting for Paul when he comes out? I doubt Bijaz is the danger, as Paul is taking him to the palace and if he needed to gain access to Chani he could do it there.

There was too much build-up for this to be it. Something needs to happen, and soon.

Also, Paul should have really paid them for Bijaz. After all, they’ll be saying he was sold, so them not having the money is suspicious. And they are poor, they need the money. (Although to make it less morally atrocious, he should have paid them for the information and to keep the ruse up.)

[lucy-the-wyrm]

'I don't speak,' Bijaz said. 'I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own.'

Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert

[chloristoflora]

Paul exhaled with the enraptured pilgrims. He nodded. Part of the veil began to lift from him. Absorbed in the bliss of a vision, he had forgotten that each vision belonged to all those who were still on-the-way, still to become. In the vision, one passed through a darkness, unable to distinguish reality from insubstantial accident. One hungered for absolutes which could never be.

Hungering, one lost the present.

Alia swayed with the rapture of spice change.

Paul felt that some transcendental presence spoke to him, saying: "Look! See there! See what you've ignored?" In that instant, he thought he looked through other eyes, that he saw an imagery and rhythm in this place which no artist or poet could reproduce. It was vital and beautiful, a glaring light that exposed all power-gluttony . . . even his own.

Alia spoke. Her amplified voice boomed across the nave.

"Luminous night," she cried.

A moan swept like a wave through the crush of pilgrims.

"Nothing hides in such a night!" Alia said. "What rare light is this darkness? You cannot fix your gaze upon it! Senses cannot record it. No words describe it." Her voice lowered. "The abyss remains. It is pregnant with all the things yet to be. Ahhhhh, what gentle violence!"

Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert

[fcotdextra]

“She stills all storms- Her eyes kill our enemies, And torment the unbelievers. From the spires of Tuono Where dawnlight strikes And clear water runs, You see her shadow. In the shining summer heat She serves us bread and milk- Cool, fragrant with spices. Her eyes melt our enemies, Torment our oppressors And pierce all mysteries. She is Alia. . . Alia. . . Alia. . .”

Frank Herbert - Dune Messiah

[feynavaley]

“No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/ human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals.”

— Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

[lucy-the-wyrm]

And he realized then that life in the royal keep had left Chani unchanged. She'd merely stopped here for a time, inhabited a way station on a journey with her man. Nothing of the desert had been taken from her.

Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert